Invasion from Uranus Read Online Free PDF

in my sticky hands.
    Trusting nobody, I sprinkled more of that Holy Water and communion wafers onto the dust, then went to her kitchen to wash as best I could. The water faucets were still turned off, but there was some bottled water in the fridge - yuppie assholes - and I got most of the gore off my hands. Everything else, I left as filthy as possible.
    By now the flames were spreading across the penthouse, the grand piano was musically snapping it strings and the curtains flaring to reveal the iron bars closing off the windows. Softly, police sirens were sounding from the streets below and this time I knew they were for me.
    But something she said before dying had caught my interest and I did a quick check behind the pictures hanging on the walls until I found a small safe. Bingo. Surrounded by the growing inferno, I cracked the tumblers and took all of the cash inside; trying to ignore the fact that armed cops were on their way up here, along with a shitload of seriously pissed off Pinkerton guards who must have figured out by now that the hookers were just a diversion.
    The smoke was thick enough to make breathing difficult, so I held a handkerchief to my mouth as I rumpled my Pinkerton guard uniform some more, then smeared some of my own blood from the shoulder wounds onto my face to blur my features. Nobody really wants to look at a bad wound. Works every time.
    Dashing for the elevator, I jacked the slide on my .44 Magnum until the clip was out of ammunition and the slide kicked back to show it was empty. Slumping to my knees with the empty gun on display, I waited until the stairwell door slammed open and out charged a mob of cops and guards. Weakly, I swung my empty gun at them and pulled the trigger several times blinking wildly.
    "Pinkerton! Stop you're under arrest," I sobbed, my chest heaving. "Get...away from her..."
    As big people charged into the roaring penthouse, somebody knelt along side me and checked the pulse in my throat. A medic of some kind. I held my breath making the pulse slow to appear even weaker than I felt. My adrenaline was still pumping, and I was fine at the moment, but that would fade soon. Had to move or die. This was the fun part.
    "It's okay, buddy, we're the cops," somebody said, gently pushing my gun away. "What happened?"
    "Six guys, military..." I paused to cough and slump further down. "The windows, some kind rope..."
    "They're rappelling down from the roof!" a cop snarled.
    "Christ, look at the flames!"
    "Nobody is left alive in there."
    "We'll take the stairs!"
    "Go-go-go!" a cop added into a mike, the wire leading to a small radio clipped to his gunbelt.
    As the group separated and charged in different directions, I took the stairs to the basement where my car was hidden. I paused to turn the water back on, which would only make things more confusing upstairs for a while. Then I rode away into the night holding a military battlefield compress to my wounds.
    Stopping at an all night diner, I stitched the holes in me shut while sitting in a stall of the men's room, then got into my normal clothes taped behind the toilet marked 'broken'. Going to the counter, I flirted with the waitress as I ordered a sandwich and some much needed black coffee, then went to a pay phone and placed a call.
    "Who the heck is this?" my cousin demanded.
    "Me," I answered. "I've thought about that video store deal you want me in on, and I got a better idea. Dry cleaners."
    "What?" he demanded, the sleep still thick in his voice, and he wasn't the most articulate person to begin with.
    "Dry cleaners," I repeated slowly, leaning against the wall to conserve my flagging strength. Man, did I need that joe. Where was the damn waitress? "We'll open a chain of dry cleaners across the city, and I'll pay for everything." I patted the sack of cash hanging at my side. Must be close to a million there, maybe two. "A chain of dry cleaners across the state. Ten stores instead of one measly video store. You in?"
    "Sure